Maui Answers 'Oahu's Questions

(Actual Email Exchange)

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'Oahu: Why is there so much unfair attention towards the arrival of the Hawaii Superferry as an alternate and affordable means of inter-island travel?  Did Norwegian Cruise Lines submit an EIS when they tripled their number of cruise ships plying the islands? 

Maui: I agree - we got screwed when the Feds put the bail-out together when  Superferry VP, Terry White's last Hawaii Cruises venture  went belly-up (after borrowing from the same type of Maritime loan).  But here he is again.  Borrowing more money.

Oahu: What’s to keep these non-American built ships (which somehow circumvented the Jones Act) from transporting invasive species to another island,

Maui: I think the concern is that vehicles driving around the islands pose more of a risk than mainlanders walking on and off the ships to (presumably) their buses and rent a cars.  (And I totally agree with you that they circumvented the Jones Act)

Oahu: or running over a humpback whale? 

Maui: Although the cruise ships could go faster they go very slowly (about 13mph) between islands because they want to be on the water during the night (dark) hours.  Scientists say that 13mph is the cut-off where any faster and whale kills increase dramatically.  The Superferry will be going 25-40mph.

Oahu: These ships bring thousands of people to our islands every week who rent cars to drive on our roads, require additional tour buses, create sewage every time they flush their toilets, and use up our precious water. 

Maui: And I could list another 10 problems with cruise ships.  I hope you'll join the campaign to limit or ban them!

Oahu: The hundreds of crew members that come ashore probably bring along their bikes that could very well pick up a little frog or a bit of mud with some seeds stuck to their tires. 

Maui: I've never seen crew members with bikes.  They DO attract prostitutes and drug dealers to the Kahului Harbor area and every Mon night (coincidentally when a specific ship is in the harbor) we have a rash of burglaries in the Harbor area.

Oahu: What’s to stop Young Brothers from running into a humpback whale, or transporting an invasive species? 

Maui: I don't know the exact speed that YB goes but I'm guessing it is about 13mph or less.

Oahu: Do they think they own our State harbors?

Maui: We can live without Cruise ships.  We can live without the Superferry.  We cannot live without interisland freight. 

But it shouldn't be a choice.  The Cruise Ships should not sit at the dock for 35 hours at a time (paying no accommodation tax and using our parks and roads).  The SuperFerry should be able to dock at Pier 1 and the Cruise Ship can go out to sea for an hour or so.  But for some reason they are favoring cruise ships.  Last week our coal barge had to wait outside the harbor FOUR DAYS until it could unload because cruise ships were camped out at our docks.

 Oahu: Why is it that anytime an alternate means of interisland travel is proposed for us over-taxed locals, someone with money always wants to shoot it down and maintain the status quo? 

Maui: Someone with money?  Actually, those who oppose this are the ones WITHOUT money.  Lehman is one of Bush's rich buddies.  Superferry execs are the ones with money -OUR money.

Oahu: No wonder our State ranks so highly as one of the worst places to do business.   I can’t help but think that you critics of the Superferry have only your own profit-motivated interests at heart. 

Maui: Profit?  What profit?  We are just trying to prevent problems and force DOT to fund things like traffic mitigation and to move the Superferry to Pier 1 and make the Cruise ships go out to sea instead of interfering with the freight that our local businesses need. 

Oahu: If a law is passed that requires the Hawaii Superferry to submit an EIS, than it is only fair that all current and future users of our State harbors be required to submit one as well.

Maui: The purpose of and EIS is to identify problems BEFORE the facility is built and come up with plans to mitigate them.  An EIS is triggered when a project uses State or Federal money...this one is getting a loans from both the State AND the Federal government.

Don't be fooled by the slick SF PR campaign.  Do the math.  Washington State has a ferry system which goes HALF the distance (meaning their fuel cost is half) but grosses the same as the Superferry estimates.  And the Washington Ferries get a 50% state subsidy.  So -- with double the cost and same revenue and NO subsidy, how can the Superferry continue to operate?

Either they have something else in mind (the Stryker Brigade or something else) or the owners are just drawing down their millions of dollars in salaries for a couple years and going to leave the State of Hawaii with an uncollectable $40 million loan and the Feds with a whopping $140 million uncollectable.

Oahu: I’m also tired of having to rent an unfamiliar car every time I visit my family on Maui, add to that the cost of renting 2 filthy car seats for my kids at $10 a day per seat, and the rent-a-car places don’t even install them for you!  I would much rather have the comfort and familiarity of my own car, wouldn’t you?

Maui: I can see that the SF has more advantages for the 'Oahu folks because you folks can go to Maui or Big Island for just the cost of the round trip.  (BTW, did you actually go to the Superferry Website and calculate the cost to take your family to Maui on the weekend?  Remember that you have to pay for your car AND each of the passengers - no free pass for babies like on the plane - also you can bring car seats on the plane.)  And Girabaldi has already admitted that the ticket costs don't reflect the real prices because fuel has gone up and they have an automatic escalation for increased fuel costs.

The neighbor islands get all the problems but we have to pay double if we want to go to a neighbor island (and most likely stay over night on 'Oahu to wait for the ferry to continue on to the neighbor isle we want to visit.)

So I guess the question is:  Do the people of 'Oahu care that the people of the neighbor islands oppose this project and are being screwed by it or do they only care about themselves.

I think, because you cared enough to write this email, that you are someone who wants to do right by everyone including your fellow citizens on the neighbor islands.  So I hope you will think over these points and understand where we are coming from.